When you are an upperclassman at Fairfield, you have the opportunity to live in an apartment and honestly; it is an opportunity that all universities should provide. The apartments at Fairfield can house four, six or eight people, which is certainly an adjustment from living with one or two people for the first half of your college experience. However, for some people, it is more of an adjustment than others. Here are the five things that I have learned so far about living in an apartment.

1. It is important to use your room.

Clothes, books and random items have a tendency to blend together when you live in an apartment with — in my case — five other people, so you should try and keep your items organized in your room. However, there will be times when you want to work in the common area. When those times arise, keep in mind that other people might need to move your belongings and that if you are finished with something, it is considerate to put them away so that everything does not feel cluttered.

2. Your bathroom will get dirty quickly.

Before I moved into my apartment, my mother had told me that when she first moved out of her house and was responsible for cleaning the bathroom regularly, she realized how dirty it got because my grandmother was not the one cleaning it. I laughed it off as one does when they are naïve, but after the first week in the apartment, I saw what she meant. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes became a Godsend after that, especially for scrubbing down sinks.

3. The dishes do not wash themselves.

I do not personally use the kitchen that often unless it is to grab a plate to put a snack on, but I have noticed how quickly plates and cups pile up when you don’t have the person at the end of the Barone conveyer built living with you. Living in an apartment and seeing how disgusting the sink becomes when left unattended has given me standards that I did not have before. I even went as far as to wash all the ones that were not mine so that I did not have to look at them any longer.

4. You cannot go wrong with a Swiffer mop and a vacuum.

During my recent kitchen purge, I also whipped out the Swiffer I brought so that I could clean the floor that was practically in a committed relationship with bits of food. Granted, the mop saw a lot more than any mop should, but it came in handy for the hard to reach spots. Additionally, my one roommate revved up the vacuum and started cleaning the carpeted area of the apartment — the common area — with similar success

5. The temperature on the thermostat may become a point-of-contention.

When 67 percent of the people in your apartment are at the far end, away from the thermostat, where it gets hot at night and the other 33 percent feels it blowing on them all night if it’s low, it can cause some tension. There is hardly an easy solution for the problem other than bundling up if you are in the cold area and trying to find a happy medium for the temperature to be set at when you settle in for the night.

Living with other people is difficult and should not be taken lightly. Once you are no longer alone, you have to take into consideration the other people living around you. I am sure that as the year progresses, I will learn more lessons about living in an apartment that I have not taken into consideration.